Sometimes, it is just good to release the valve and share the inner thoughts!

Monday, October 04, 2010

The Benefits Of A Fairly Unfair System!

I doubt there is anyone who can dispute we are in a financial mess and something needs to be done to control the enormous interest payments we are making to foreign institutions and governments for our borrowing.

The most obvious and headline grabbing saving, is to reform the vastly complicated and financially draining benefits and welfare system. It is a system that many voters regard with contempt, mainly due to the negative stories in the press of benefit cheats and scroungers, so it is a reform that few will oppose. After all, it is rare we get to hear of the majority, who have only survived because of the help they receive from the system.

Chancellor George Osborne, has today announced a total restructure to bring fairness for all, while making the system cheaper to administer and easier to understand.

In the interim, he announced that universal child benefit, payable to all families whatever their income, is to be stopped for those who earn around £44k per year.

At the other end of the scale, no family will be able to claim a total benefit greater than the national average wage received by a family in full-time work - thought to be around £25k per year.

On the face of it, this does seem like a fairer system, as those who can afford it lose a freebie and those who can’t don’t gain financially by remaining out of work.

However, when looking at the figures supplied by the BBC, it seems that those at the top end will only lose around £1.7k for a family with 2 children while a family receiving full benefits will lose anything from £4.5k to £15k per year.

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith told the BBC: “I don’t love the idea of this, you know”

Neither will those who are genuinely unable to find work and who are about to be hit the hardest!